News: Nourish Profits with Hearty, Healthy Beef Easy à la Minute

Janes
Says
Newsletter Issue 4: Autumn 2010
Contents: Nourish Profits • Easy à la Minute Asian Soup • Product Spotlight
Food Service Trend Spotting • Industry Snapshot • Market Watch
News: Nourish Profits with Hearty, Healthy Beef
Beef is a must on Canadian menus and Janes fully cooked, 4 kg seasoned beef strips
(11510) make offering beef’s great taste more convenient than ever before. Janes beef
strips are randomly sized so that they look hand cut; however, by choosing Janes fully
cooked, seasoned beef strips operators can avoid the expensive hand labour of slicing
and browning meat for their mis en place each day. Moreover, our beef strips come in a
2 x 2 kg package so that cooks can use what they need today and keep the rest fresh,
ready and waiting for tomorrow’s service.
Like our fully cooked chicken strips (11501) Janes’ first foodservice beef strips are ten-
der, moist and delicious on their own; but they’re also suitable as a quality protein choice
for making traditionally flavourful fajitas, stir fries or soups like the one below.
Easy à la Minute Asian Soup
This simple soup (pictured left) is a great appetizer
option for all kinds of foodservice outlets.
1
st
Place
Menu Maker!
12 cups
sodium-reduced beef broth
3L
4 cups
Janes Beef MealMakers Carved Beef Strips
1L
frozen vegetable dumplings or pot-stickers
12
2 tbsp
4 cups
12
1/2 cup
minced fresh ginger
Asian-style steamed mixed vegetables
chopped fresh coriander or parsley
Lime wedges and Thai sweet chili sauce
30 mL
1L
125 mL
1. Bring the broth and ginger to a boil. Add beef, vegetables and dumplings. Cook for
5 minutes or until beef and vegetables are heated through. Stir in the coriander. Serve
with lime wedges and Thai sweet chili sauce on the side. Makes 8 appetizer servings.
Tip: For the best results, make new batches as needed throughout service.
Looking for more ways to beef up your menu? Why not try one of these sizzling
hot, on trend menu ideas that you can make more easily and profitably with Janes
fully cooked beef strips:
Wraps
Toss Janes
beef strips with
chunks of aged
Cheddar cheese
and lettuce; roll
up in a large
wheat flour tortilla for a steak
house-style
wrap. Serve with
steak sauce on
the side.
Korean Tacos
Brush warm
wheat flour
tortillas with
hoisin sauce.
Pile on warm
beef strips. Toss
cilantro leaves
with chopped
lettuce and bean
sprouts. Drizzle
with Asian sesame dressing and
pile on top of
meat.
Pasta
Create a quick
and easy stroganoff by tossing
hot, fresh egg
noodles with
warm beef strips,
sautéed oyster
mushrooms
and just enough
sour cream
to coat the
noodles evenly.
Add a handful of chopped,
fresh parsley
and toss to
combine. Serve
with steamed
green and yellow
beans.
Omlettes
For a new take
on steak and
eggs, sauté onions and green
peppers on the
flat top. Add
beef strips and
toss until heated
through. Spread
evenly over one
side of an almost
fully cooked
omelet. Sprinkle
with aged cheddar before folding the eggs over
the filling. Serve
with Texas toast
and homefries.
Risotto
Prepare roasted
cubes of squash
and caramelized onions
accented with
thyme before
making risotto.
When adding
the last addition
of broth to the
rice, stir in beef
strips, squash
and onions.
Garnish the top
of the bowl with
crumbled Stilton
or a Canadian
smoked blue
cheese such as
Blue Haze. Not
keen on blue
cheese? True
aged smoked
Gouda instead.
Foodservice Trend Spotting: Better to be Safe
than Sorry
By Chef Dana McCauley
It’s no secret that it’s tough to run a profitable foodservice busi-
ness in Canada these days. With the HST making many patrons
cheque shy in B.C. and Ontario and the economy just generally
less robust than it was a few years ago, labour cost pressures are
forcing many operators to stack their kitchen rosters with less ex-
perienced prep cooks. Despite the operating cost savings derived,
entry level cooks may not have the food safety vigilance and training that more experienced (but also more expensive) staff bring.
That’s a big worry for many restaurant managers. Consider that
a recent study found that 77% of Canadians were either ‘very’ or
‘somewhat’ concerned with the safety of the food they eat. That number is up substan-
tially from 2007 when only 66% had the same concern. Obviously restaurateurs need to
take steps to reassure the increasingly concerned Canadian public that dining out is a
safe choice.
One solution available to independent operators and chain buyers is to purchase fully
cooked ingredients that offer a bevy of benefits including substantial reductions in the
chance of spreading harmful organisms in the kitchen.
Good choices include:
• Plain Janes unbreaded chicken nuggets (12891)
• dusted, fully cooked wings (60002)
• cooked white meat Sandwich Grillers portions (40452)
• cooked, seasoned Beef MealMakers (11510)
• cooked, carved Chicken MealMakers (11501)
Need more information about the products,
recipe ideas or articles in this newsletter?
Contact:
Shawn Davies, VP Foodservice
[email protected]
(416) 673-7145
Industry Snapshot
By Direct Link
Just how much momentum does the precooked
chicken trend have in the Canadian foodservice
sector?
The answer: Plenty!
• Pre-cooked chicken is gaining ground on raw with 11 additional share points in
the past 3 years
• Pre-cooked became the top choice for operators in Q1 2010
(52 Weeks ending March)
• Pre-cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast and julienne/fajita products are
the leading transition item as operators switch from buying raw to pre-cooked
products
Direct Link specializes in analyzing the Canadian Foodservice market.
For more information visit their website.
Product Spotlight: Keeping Abreast of the Market
We’ve done it! Our product development team has created a line of 100% consistently
sized, fully cooked, whole muscle chicken breasts that fulfill all your high quality, white
meat needs. The Janes fully cooked line up now
includes 68 g (11456), 90 g (11444) and 113 g
(11457) moist, delicious, char-marked chicken
breasts to suit a variety of menu occasions.
Although we’re proud of all of these proucts, at
less than $1 per portion, Janes’ new whole mus-
cle 68 g fully cooked chicken breasts are generat-
ing excitement because they’re the perfect size
for lunch menus. Each portion has 20% meat protein and a firm, juicy texture. Here’s
how our chefs have been serving them at Janes HQ:
Au Gratin: Blend some prepared bread stuffing with shredded Cheddar and
sautéed apples. Place a spoonful of this mixture on top of a piece of Janes fully cooked
chicken and top with another portion, char marks up. Sprinkle with a little more of the
stuffing mixture. Refrigerate for up to 5 hours. As ordered, bake each stack for a few
minutes until the cheese melts and chicken is heated through. Serve with a side salad or
steamed veggies for a substantial entrée at lunch or dinner.
Upside down Pear and Gorgonzola Chicken Salad:
Place a warm, fully cooked Janes chicken breastportion in the middle of a serving plate.
Toss bitter lettuces such as frisee or baby arugula with balsamic or lemon vinaigrette.
Using tongs, arrange a pile of greens on top of the chicken. Garnish with thinly sliced
pears and crumbled gorgonzola cheese. Coarsely chop some candied pecans and sprin-
kle around the white space on the plate for a fine dining-style presentation.
Spa Chicken Salad: Cut a cantaloupe into four wedges. Remove and
discard seeds. Place each wedge on a serving plate. Combine halved seedless grapes,
light mayonnaise, thinly sliced basil and mint in a mixing bowl. Add lemon juice to taste.
Toss to combine and spoon over cantaloupe wedges. Slice cold portions of Janes 68 g
chicken breasts into two by cutting crosswise. Prop the chicken up against the salad and
garnish with a sprig of mint or basil.
Market Watch: Boneless “Wings” take Flight
Until 18 months ago, the term ‘boneless wings’ was relatively unknown; however, since
then this novel chicken cut has helped restaurateurs from Whitehorse to Key West satisfy the seemingly insatiable consumer demand for chicken wings.
Interestingly, in the process operators are also giving consumers a healthier choice,
too! At Janes, our boneless wings -- called Janes Ultimate Boneless Bites -- are cut
from skinless, snow white chicken breasts which means they’re lower fat than traditional
wings. Likewise, consumers and operators get better value when they choose Janes
Ultimate Boneless Bites since the price includes 100% edible product instead of the high
proportion of bones in actual wings.
What does the future hold for the boneless wing category?
“Unlike regular wings that are limited in supply, we see tremen-
dous growth potential and price stability for boneless wings,”
notes Shawn Davies, VP Foodservice at Janes Family Foods.
“Because we get several boneless wing portions from each
chicken breast, the supply is much more abundant than for
wings which, of course, are limited to two per bird.”
Janes commodity analyst Lucky Bilkhu adds that “with wing supply well below normal,
the wings market should prove interesting this fall. The typical seasonal increase in wing
prices will likely start early this year and prices should be strong going into 2011. The
market strength of wings will also help alternative finger foods -- such as boneless wings,
chicken tenders and drumsticks –- to gain market strength, too.”
Given these insights, it’s evident that Janes Ultimate Boneless Bites will be entering the
market at the perfect time to help operators please patrons with wing experiences that
feed bottom line profits, too.
Contact us: 1-800-56-JANES (1-800-565-2637) or e-mail [email protected]
Visit us: www.janesfoodservice.com or www.janesfamilyfoods.com
Copyright 2000-2010. Janes Family Foods.